Not Quite at First Sight
by INMH
Summary: For the lover100 challenge, prompt "First Meeting". The first time Tess met Emil, she took a swing at him.


Not Quite at First Sight

**Rating:** PG/K+

**Genre:** Hurt/Comfort/Humor

**Summary:** For the lover100 challenge, prompt "First Meeting". The first time Tess met Emil, she took a swing at him.

**Author's Note:** …TEMIL! :D

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Smallville. It belongs to Alfred Gough, Miles Millar and the CW.

()()

When Tess becomes coherent, remembers that the last thing that happened was her getting thrown into a wall by a crazy redhead and realizes that someone has their hands on her head, her first instinct is to swing.

"_Whoa!_" Whoever it is jerks back in surprise, and it's only when she opens her eyes and realizes that she's on a gurney in the emergency room at Met Gen that Tess realizes her error. The doctor whose nose she'd nearly broken has both hands up defensively. "Ma'am?"

Tess shakes her head and blinks. "I- I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

When he sees that she isn't trying to attack further, he puts his hands down and nods. "I startled you."

"Yeah."

"I'm Dr. Hamilton. Do you know where you are?"

_If I didn't, I'd probably have knocked you out by now._ "The hospital. I had a little run-in at my home, this girl-" Tess cuts herself off, because she isn't certain how much information is wise to share at this point. She looks down and sees that her clothing is still in tact, which means they must have just brought her in.

Dr. Hamilton holds up a small flashlight and twitches it slightly. "Can I check to see if you have a concussion?" She can tell from his tone that he's still not one-hundred percent certain that she's not going to take another swing at him.

As he leans in to check her eyes for any uneven pupil-sizes, Tess suddenly takes notice of how nice his eyes are. They're dark brown and serene, and very… Nice. Apparently that head injury has made any and all articulacy fly out the window.

_Wow, Tess, hitting on random doctors. Chalk it up to the multitude of things that go wrong when you hit your head._ Well, technically she isn't hitting on him. She assumes you have to actually say it out loud to count.

"Am I concussed?" Tess asks dryly, and he doesn't quite smile, but he looks close to it.

"Not from what I can tell. Though I would recommend against getting into anymore fights."

"It wasn't a fight, exactly."

"Then what was it?"

"Me getting thrown across a room." Dr. Hamilton's eyebrows jump up at that. "What?"

"You described your assailant as a girl." Now Tess's eyebrows fly up as well.

"Girls can't throw?"

Some men might have gotten flustered at that, backtracked hastily and tried to correct themselves. Hamilton doesn't. "Girls can throw just fine; though my suspension of disbelief ends where the object being thrown is another person."

"Are you new to Metropolis?" Tess asks sardonically as he begins to pull her hair aside, examining her scalp for injury.

"No."

"Then you should know that a girl with super-strength would not be the strangest thing that's ever happened here." And Hamilton nods.

"That's true." Tess jerks sharply when he finally prods at a place on the right-half of her scalp that makes the metaphorical needle on the meter of her pain jump up several notches. Her head is generally sore, but that's par for the course with a head-injury. When Dr. Hamilton's hand briefly enters her line of vision again, she sees some blood on the white gloves.

"How bad is it?"

"Not too bad. It won't need stitches." He pulls a piece of gauze out of a drawer nearby, sprays some disinfectant on it and starts to gently dab at the wound. Tess grits her teeth against the sting. "Sorry." She looks down and realizes that her fingers are digging very noticeably into the fabric of the cushion on the examination table.

"It's fine. I've dealt with worse."

Dr. Hamilton cocks an eyebrow at her, but chooses not to remark beyond a simple "I see." He finishes cleaning off the wound and tosses the gauze away. "All right, I think we're done. I'd recommend going home and taking a few Advil; but if the pain doesn't recede within the next twenty-four hours, call your regular physician and have him take a look at you. Other than that, you're free to go."

Tess nods and gets off the gurney, straightening her shirt. "Thank you, doctor." He offers her a smile.

…Oh. And his smile is nice too. Like his eyes.

Tess smiles back, but after a moment feels like the particular flavor of this smile might be a bit too girlish and reins it back in.

_Still silently hitting on the random doctor, Tess. Avoid any further head injuries or you might try to make out with him._

-End


End file.
